By Mark Smeyers on September 9. 2015 in LamboNEWS.
With prices on the Lamborghini Miura and Countach reaching never before seen heights, and the Diablo quickly following in their footsteps it might be a good idea to step into super car ownership with another V12 model in the history of Automobili Lamborghini SpA … the original Murciélago 6.2 liter model introduced in 2001.
Prices on these Bulls are still reasonable, and being ‘only’ little over ten years old you already enjoy some modern comforts neither of the predecessors could offer apart from the late model Diablo VT 6.0 … still the legendary V12 derived from the very first production Lamborghini, the 350GT, you might say the Murciélago was the last of the original Raging Bulls as the Aventador received a totally new V12 engine.
I know we all like the swansong of the Murciélago production, the aggressive looking LP670-4 Super Veloce of which only 186 were built, but if there is one other car built in the ten year production span of this model that is surely something special it is chassis number ZA9BC10E02LA12026 with engine number L535 033.
A very early production Murciélago, in fact the factory called her the ‘Pre Series 6’, this was the 26th car built … back in September 2001 she was still on the production line with the last units of the Diablo VT 6.0 SE in front of her. Note that this very Murciélago was kept by the factory to become the record beating Bull in early 2002.
On February 16. 2002, between 22:21 and 23:21 this yellow Lamborghini Murciélago would cover 305.041 km (189.543 miles) from a standing start with Giorgio Sanna behind the wheel, at an average speed of 320 km/h, she completed 22 laps on the 12.6 km Nardò Prototipo ring in Puglia … this would be record nr 1, the international one hour speed record for production cars with a non-turbo +6,000 cc engine.
But that was only the start, at the same time this standard, customer car managed to set two more international records, both from a standing start :
100 km were completed with an average speed of 320.023 km/h (198.853 mph) in 18:44.9 minutes
100 miles were completed at an average speed of 320.254 km/h (198.996 mph) in 30:09 minutes.
Even more impressive is the fact these three international records were obtained in less than perfect weather conditions, at the time there was a strong, south eastern wind rushing over the track, without the amazing high-speed stability, the four-wheel drive system and the skillful driving of Sanna this result would have been impossible … and the one hour record included a fuel stop too!
This was a demo car for the factory in Sant’Agata, so maintenance and service were executed right at the factory, there is no better place to get your Lamborghini serviced I guess … after the promotion and demo life was completed for Murciélago 12026 she was sold to a collector in Italy who enjoyed this amazing V12 a lot … by 2015 this very V12 had covered 117,500 km when she was put up for auction by famous RM Sotheby’s during their London event.
Lot 152 was offered on Monday, September 7. 2015 with an estimate between £120,000 and £160,000 … she would change hands after a winning bid of £95,200 (€130,553 or $146,290 at the currency conversion on September 7), so not really reaching her estimate, but still a very nice price for such an important car.
Note that at the same auction in London a 1981 Lamborghini Countach LP400S (chassis 1121296 – engine 1121198), lot 141, came in with an estimate between £245,000 and £315,000 and sold for £263,200 (€361,078 or $404,457), only just above her lower estimate … while a1958 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competirione ‘Tour de France’ by Scaglietti sold for £4,760,000 at the same auction.
This means a piece of recent V12 history from Sant’Agata has been sold for less than $150,000 … but I’m sure this specific car will become much more valuable as time goes by.
